The invention herein relates to an external ventricular drainage assembly for use in the draining of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the ventricles of a patient's brain to prevent the undue buildup of such CSF and pressure within the brain.
The external ventricular drainage assembly herein is designed for use in the treatment of hydrocephalus wherein excess cerebrospinal fluid is drained from the ventricles of the brain. In many known techniques for the treatment of hydrocephalus, excess CSF is drained from the ventricles of the brain to another region of the body such as the right atrium or the peritoneum. In such systems, a valving mechanism is employed which is implanted in the patient. The valving mechanism permits the flow of the excess CSF from the brain to such other parts of the body.
Under some circumstances, it is desirable to treat hydrocephalus by draining the excess CSF from the ventricles of the brain to a collection receptacle that is outside of the body. For example, surgically induced hydrocephalus may be only a temporary problem such that it would not need a totally implanted CSF shunting system. In such a case, an external drainage system is desirable.
Problems associated with external drainage systems which drain fluid from the body, regardless of the fluid, generally relate to such systems providing routes of infection to the patient. An external drainage system which is open to the environment surrounding a patient can provide a route for microbes such as bacteria to enter the patient's body. It is undesirable to have the possibility for the introduction of bacteria to cause an infection to the patient as generally the patient is already in a weakened condition. It would be desirable to provide an external ventricular drainage assembly which would prevent or inhibit the introduction of bacteria and other microbes into the patient and which would be an easy to use system.